Menu

Patch 3.3 Starter Bear Gear lists (Armor)

The purpose of this gear list is to help those folks that are working to be the best they can be prior to raiding.

From the start of crafted Blues to being ready for Icecrown, this is the list for you.

There are certain realities, this deep into the game.

If you’ve got a level 80 Druid, there is a ton of content available at level 80. If your Druid just hit 80 recently, then most raiding opportunities in the earlier 80 realms are past. The group you’re going to run with is either already all geared up and you need to catch up, or the rest of your friends are just getting started in the casual chase, and you’ll get plenty of chances to run Heroics before needing to be raid ready anyway. Either way, chances are good you’re not going to be gearing up by running weekly raids in Naxxramus, Obsidian Sanctum or Eye of Eternity. Even Ulduar and ToC might be relegated to trips down memory lane before too long.

This list serves as a guide for how I rank the items you can acquire from professions, world drops, quests, regular instances, Heroic instances, emblems of all kinds (including Frost), Argent Tournament Crusader Seals and PvP.

No raids are included, not even the commonly pugged ones. I rarely if ever am asked to provide a Raiding Bear’s list of upgrades. What people ask for from me is a helpful starting ground for when they want to get cracking as a new Bear, and don’t really know where to look first.

Whether you prefer more Stamina rather than Agility, or vice versa, more Hit Rating, more Expertise, more Crit Rating, etc is really dependant on your current gear overall. There is no gear list that can replace your judgment. What this list can do is help point out where some great upgrades in general can be found when you’re first starting out.

This first list covers armor. Every item on this list has an Armor Value that is affected by the Bear Form Multiplier. Thus, higher Armor Value matters a great deal for these items.

A few notes on how the gear purchases work.

Emblems of Frost can be used, much like Triumph, to purchase both non-Tier items and items that are part of Tier 10 sets. You will find that the Tier 10 items you can purchase are actually weaker than the ones you can purchase for the exact same amount of Emblems of Frost that aren’t part of any set. One example of this is the Shadow Seeker’s Tunic versus the Lasherweave Raiment.

The reason for this is, the Shadow Seeker’s Tunic is non-upgradeable. It is a fantastic chest piece, but it is a use of 95 Emblems of Frost that, once spent, are what they are. The Lasherweave Raiment, which you purchase from the Druid armor vendor from within the Icecrown Citadel Raid Instance itself, is also 95 Emblems of Frost… but you must purchase it in order to get the higher level Tier 10 upgrades later on. To get a higher Tier 10 item, you MUST exchange the Tier 10 you bought with Emblems of Frost, along with a token from a drop.

In effect, you can consider the Emblem of Frost Tier 10 armor items to represent an investment towards the future. If you will be raiding, and expect to get Token drops, then the Tier 10 items, and their set bonuses, are the better long term purchase. If you are a casual player and may never see a token drop, let alone win the roll for it, the stand alone non-set item represents a beautiful “best in slot”.

Let your own judgment and expectations be your guide.

While perusing the lists, keep in mind the following;

Hit Rating Cap for Bears: 262.3

Expertise Rating Cap for Bears: 443

(Hit Rating and Expertise Caps are not provided as “much reach” goals, but instead are guidelines to help you know when you have enough of each value, and when stacking more on is a waste of stat point aloocations)

Total Dodge is reduced in Icecrown Citadel Raids by 20% from the Chill of the Throne. This does not affect Heroics. Please keep in mind, do not gear or gem specifically for Dodge, or specifically for Health to compensate for this, but use a balanced mix of the two.

Post navigation

71 thoughts on “Patch 3.3 Starter Bear Gear lists (Armor)”

Comment navigation

And as I already replied once, if you tell me you want a post about trinkets and stuff, that tells me you didn’t visit the website to actually look for it, because the post is stickied right there on the sidebar.

@bigbearbutt nope no side bars, suggest you try looking at your site as a non-logged in non-admin before talking trash to people reading your site. The sidebar does show up in Internet explorer, but not in firefox.. Suggest you grab a theme that is compatible with more than IE6, before making snarky comments.

While it’s fun to be snarky to asshats like Jabba, clearly there are people coming here being directed from an internet search engine or a link from someone else, who are only looking for these two posts, and have no interest in visiting the actual website main page where the sidebar can be found, and where current content shows up.

If you’re not interested in reading the blog, if you only came for this, then here is a direct link to page 2:

And I’ve got no problem with that. It really is part and parcel of who I am.

Not a single thing is wrong with this site in terms of looking at the sidebar, and seeing the links to be found there. Not if a person is at the root address of the site, rather than looking at one of the click through lihnks to a page all by itself.

Now, I’ll certainly accept comments along the lines that the site is counter-intuitive when coming here from a link. Most people use feedreaders, and don’t expect the website to display in different view modes depending on where you are when you visit.

What people like jabba don’t seem to grasp is, A) If someone isn’t polite on my website, I couldn’t give a rats ass about them, in any way shape or form, and B) I do this website as a fun hobby, and putting up with some knowitall pissant’s egotistical little bullshit ain’t anything I’m interested in. I’m not in the business of coddling people like that, because I’m not in a business. This is not a business. This website has made me, to date, over the last what, three years? Zero dollars. What part of zero requires me to be polite to an asshole? Okay, techically since I pay for hosting, it’s in the negatives. But I’ll stick to zero. Because I do get something back. Something very, very valuable to me.

I get to spend time chatting with, and enjoying the companyof, those people who visit here who are actually NICE.

That’s the only reason I do this, and damn, but if it doesn’t feel nice to chat with really nice people in this world, about things we all enjoy.

lol at your mar 17 post and i agree fuck the ass holes but just wanted to say THANK YOU for the site really helpful while trying to gear out my druid tank i don’t have everything i want yet but has saved me a lot of time, badges and gold. i have tryed to find more site for other toon “like shammies” with nothing near as helpful so again thx and koodos to you

Just to add.. the chest chant shouldnt be Super Stats.. because if your Bear.. then the 18 stam (Knothide Leather Kit) I believe it is.. will give 18 stam then if u put points into [Survival of the Fittest] then thats 6% all attrib. more + Pally buff Kings (in raids gives 10%) therefore.. 18 stam x 1.16 (16%) = 38.88 stam from that chant where 8 stam (from the Super Stats chant would only give 80ish HP) where 38.88 gives around 380hp >.> Soooo yea.. thats not right.. lol 18 stam would be better if ur bear tank.. it gives more HP in the end.. and Imo the 8 all stats isnt nothing compared to 380hp more.. (Plus theres a 10 all stats chant too..)

Yay, BBB! Still love the site! Fun posts, and some of these that people just link to really are great, great reference pages. I was chatting with a friend just now trying to get him set up as a new bear, and it got me looking through all these pages you made… And makes me want to play me bear more! Rawr! 😀

You have some PvP Items on there so PvP gear must be acceptable. I wonder why you do not have the following?
Relentless Gladiators Belt of Triumph.
Relentless Gladiators Boot’s of Triumph
Titan-forged Cloak of Victory